Heat Wave, Graduation and Meat Pie

Hey, who the heck turned on the STEAM MACHINE this weekend? Whew! The temperature in Michigan today was 97 (110 in the sun, as this thermometer in our backyard shows) this afternoon, with the heat index being over 100. That's extremely hot for us in this area, and we aren't used to it. AND I noticed on the weather report that this entire week is supposed to stay in the 90's with Thursday's high being 100! Holy heat wave, Batman! I can hardly wait to see our a/c bill next month.  :-(  

I know a lot of my blogger friends are also suffering from the heat and, in some places, drought too. I feel for you guys, and hope you're able to find ways to stay cool. We're definitely in the Dog Days of Summer now.

Last week at work was busy-crazy and fun as our church sponsored Vacation Bible School. The kids had a blast and, as always, the staff was amazed at how much, and how quickly, they learned! This week will definitely be much quieter as our Pastor will be in Indiana on Monday & Tuesday for a Pastor's conference, and I'll be in the office alone on those days. As long as my a/c wall unit keeps working, I'll be just fine.  :-)

Saturday Tom and I put a lot of miles on our car, and we were never more than an hour and 15 minutes from home! Early in the morning, we drove to my hairdresser/friend's house so that I could get my hair touched up (blonde highlights). She lives on a canal in Algonac, just off Lake St. Clair, and that area is totally gorgeous. Yes, it's a long drive, but she's been doing my hair for 25 years now, and I get a color, wash, cut and style for only $25, so it's worth it. Plus I get to catch up with her on things going on in both her family and mine.

From Algonac, Tom & I drove to at least 3 or 4 other places, none of which were close to home. It seemed like our errands were never-ending, but we actually had a nice time sight-seeing and going to areas of Metro Detroit we hadn't drove through in years. It was like we made a huge "square" from our house, all the way over to the east side (Canada was across the river at that point), down to 8 Mile Road (the northern border of Detroit) all the way back to the west side (home), and an hour later to southeast Redford for our (future) niece's graduation party. We had gotten on the road at 9 a.m., and didn't get back home for the night until 11 p.m. Man, that was a long day.

We had a nice time at our (future) niece's graduation party, but it was certainly VERY WARM sitting in her parents' backyard, and there was only shade in half the yard at any given time. They had a pool, but we didn't bring our bathing suits, and besides, the pool was filled with screaming, splashing kids, so we wouldn't have gone in anyway. I did, however, use water from the pool several times to wet down my arms, shoulders, neck, back, etc. to help keep me cool until the sun went down. I think that's the only thing that made Saturday evening bearable. Anyway, we were so happy for Megan (our nephew, Jeremy's, girlfriend of the past two years) that she graduated from high school--one of the first in her family, if you can believe that. She's already been accepted to Schoolcraft College near her home, and will start in the fall. She hopes to become a bakery and pastry chef. Yum! Sounds good to me! Megan got held back a year in school when she was younger, so she actually graduated at age 19. Jeremy is 21, and we can totally see them getting married some day, which is great, cuz Megan is a doll. And she's such a sweet, pretty girl!

Today, Sunday, we went to church, then  Bible Class, and then decided to stay home in the a/c. We haven't had much rain either, so we've been having to water our garden every few nights, but as you can see, our plants--3 tomato, 2 zucchini, 4 cukes and 2 bean pole plants--seem to be doing well.

Oh, and lastly, we had a special treat for dinner tonight! Tom decided to experiment, and he made us a homemade meat pie for dinner. Inside, he included meat, potatoes, corn, red peppers, mushrooms, onions, garlic and brown gravy. It was SOOOO good! And look at that light-brown, crispy pie crust!   I love that man's cooking. Heck, I think I'll even keep him around for a while. LOL

Have a great week, and STAY COOL, ya'll!